Friends,
I hope everyone is well and will have a great Thanksgiving holiday in the US.
I want to thank the LDI team for allowing our presentation on the need for The Entertainment Association. It was a very successful conversation at LDI2022, and we reached many people. The next conversation is December 8th at The Conference at Lititz.
Recently, news came from Europe that falls squarely in two of the five potential reasons for another shutdown of the entertainment industry. A major entertainment production event, Showlight 2023, was canceled. Below is a quote from the producers:
“When we first budgeted for Showlight in Fontainebleau, in 2018, the future looked good, but the combination of Covid, the current political and economic state in Europe, and more recently, uncertain final costs for the event, have put Showlight in severe jeopardy of failure, both with the standard of our unique event and also in its cost."
Please click here to read the PDF regarding the need for the association.
The organizers of Showlight are concerned over financial losses created by both a potential health issue as well as socio/political and war-related issues for an event that was to be held in France in May 2023.
We are all in show business. Each of us are in business and we must make money to survive and move forward. Most events have a deadline before which they must cancel to not put huge sums of money at risk. Showlight 2023 is more than 6 months away, and the organizers have decided to pull the plug.
It is this type of concern over profitability in what some perceive as an uncertain future that drives the need for The Entertainment Association.
Tied to that concern from within our own industry is the fact that political leaders also think in this same manner. If a majority of political leaders see a threat, perceived or real, they may indeed believe another shutdown is in the best interest of the country. Remember that in a shutdown, it is only entertainment and cruise lines that are 100% shut. Everyone else works to some degree.
Therefore, until entertainment has a voice to Congress, it will be assumed that everyone will be “OK” and make it through another shutdown. Congress believes that every industry has a path to survival, as they did in 2020. Reduced capacity, social distancing, delivery and other solutions allow every other market sector to survive. Entertainment simply has no “altered state” that allows us to survive. Entertainment requires people to gather in large numbers in order to survive. A shutdown prohibits the large gatherings.
The cancelation of this major event is just one example, but it is evidence of what can happen. I am not an alarmist, I am a realist.
Our industry will be better served to have The Entertainment Association and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
Thank you all for listening, acting and for everything you do. I look forward to seeing many of you at Rock Lititz.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and be safe,
Michael T. Strickland
Bandit Lites, Inc. Chair and Founder